What the startup visa should really look like
eliasbizannes.com
eliasbizannes.com
* edit (C corp or LLC)
One of the main premises is that innovation is stifled because employees in the position to innovate are chained to their jobs via the H1 visa in their prime years.
So it took me 3 years until I could start creating jobs in the US. In my opinion US government should provide incentives for the foreigners to CREATE jobs, not TAKE them. Right now it's exactly the opposite.
This OP's point is I think the most important part of this blog post: "And allow them to graduate into new visa's (like a greencard) once certain milestones have been hit like revenue thresholds (tax paid) and employment (aggregate demand in the economy increases)."
That's why you see tourist visas denied for people who are coming from developed countries and are visiting relatives. The immigration official knows that one he lets you in, he has to count on the person's goodwill that they'll leave.
Could you live in the US illegally and be working at a Fortune 500 company? Probably not. Could you come to the US and work at a mom and pop grocery store? Probably.
And the USCIS has a minuscule enforcement arm. They prioritize criminals for deportation. If you're a law abiding immigrant (excluding the immigration violation), you are very low priority for deportation.
I would think that this in itself coupled with the high time investment costs of applying for such a startup visa (business plan, prototype etc) would self-select a section of the population who will either succeed or self deport (instead of screwing up their career and future potential by living illegally).
What if instead you can get people to invest that amount into your startup and then use that investment to create jobs?
craig politihacks com (with the usual distribution of at and dot)
I will say that the last thing a startup visa program needs is discretionary government oversight. That has disaster written all over it.
My opinion is this: you should be able to come to the US and "pay your way". By this I mean demonstrate that a) you can support yourself and b) you are paying for things like health insurance. There probably needs to be a package for (b) such that, from the perspective of the government, you aren't "freeloading".
It should be up to each state to determine what that means. If you reside in NYC perhaps you need $30,000 to support yourself. In Iowa? Maybe $10,000 will do.
While residing in the US on such a visa you can't take a job (you need a visa for that) but you can start a business. This is where it gets tricky because you don't necessarily want to open the floodgates for people who are in de facto employment through a small business.
The packaged health (and other) costs and keeping sufficient funds to support yourself should ameliorate that possibility.
As long as people are willing to pay to reside in the US and work on their big idea, why not let them?
At some point if your company gets funded or you have sufficient revenue and/or employees, you can convert to the appropriate immigration status.
Also, It is not valid to start a business and pay yourself at least the prevailing wage in order to sponsor an H-1B. In fact, if you are in the ownership chain of a company you more or less can't have it apply for an H-1B on your behalf. There are other routes if you are making serious money though.
Turning a H1B into a green card is the process that involves the labor cert.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for ensuring that foreign workers do not displace or adversely affect wages or working conditions of US workers. For every H-1B petition filed with the USCIS, there must be included a Labor Condition Application (LCA) (not to be confused with the labor certification), certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. The LCA is designed to ensure that the wage offered to the non-immigrant worker meets or exceeds the "prevailing wage" in the area of employment. ("Immigration law has a number of highly technical terms that may not mean the same thing to the average reader." [32] last updated 2011 March 31, visited 2012 November 5) The LCA also contains an attestation section designed to prevent the program from being used to import foreign workers to break a strike or replace US citizen workers.
While an employer is not required to advertise the position before hiring an H-1B non-immigrant pursuant to the H-1B visa approval, the employer must notify the employee representative about the Labor Condition Application (LCA)—or if there is no such representation, the employer must publish the LCA at the workplace and the employer's office.[33][34] Under the regulations, LCAs are a matter of public record. Corporations hiring H-1B workers are required to make these records available to any member of the public who requests to look at them. Copies of the relevant records are also available from various web sites, including the Department of Labor.
[1]. http://www.uscis.gov/eir [2]. http://gan.co/
Anyone hear anything from them since then?
Can you point me to anything?
The problem with setting benchmarks are where do you set them? There is already a program know as the EB-5 program that requires you to invest $1MM ($500k in economic development zones) and create 10 jobs and after 3-4 years you can get a green card.
Let me quote from the regulations. You need either a Nobel Prize or any three of the following:
Receipt of nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence in the field of endeavor
Membership in associations in the field for which classification is sought which require outstanding achievements, as judged by recognized national or international experts in the field
Published material in professional or major trade publications, newspapers or other major media about the beneficiary and the beneficiary’s work in the field for which classification is sought
Original scientific, scholarly, or business-related contributions of major significance in the field
Authorship of scholarly articles in professional journals or other major media in the field for which classification is sought
A high salary or other remuneration for services as evidenced by contracts or other reliable evidence
Participation on a panel, or individually, as a judge of the work of others in the same or in a field of specialization allied to that field for which classification is sought
Employment in a critical or essential capacity for organizations and establishments that have a distinguished reputation
Now comes the hacking bit: can you map any three of those broadly written requirements to three specific achievements a 23 year old programmer could have within two months of setting out to have them? Empirically, more than a few people can. (I'm constrained about what I can tell you about individual folks.)
e.g. While I'm an American citizen and thus wouldn't have to worry about it (the relevant criteria for my Japanese visa are, obviously, different), I could present a fairly strong case for an O1 visa on the basis of:
1) I have been published in a major CS journal. (ACM reprinted a blog post of mine. Totally counts. I'm pretty sure you can make "Guest posted for Smashing Magazine" into one of your three points, if that seems unlikely.)
2) My salary is high (i.e. "at least as high as a starting grad at Google"), as evidenced by copious paper I could produce on that topic. Not a high bar for any engineer to hit.
3) I judged a hackathon once ("participated on a panel as the judge of work of others..."). (So not kidding. Bureaucracies are state machines. You give them exactly what they ask for and get the published transition.)
etc, etc, etc
The salary bit can be difficult, since you're applying as a founder. Not sure how much investors like a very capital-intensive founder, as would be mandated by the law if that's one of the criteria used.
Makes it somewhat more difficult for an 18-year old with multiple exits to qualify.
Do you have any evidence on the state machine-ness of bureaucracies? Anecdotes? How can you substantiate your opinion and example?
Worry about being great -- (Steve Martin quote is relevant here: "be so good they can't ignore you")
So yes, valid idea. But again, not what I' saying: if I want to start a business, it should not be a requirement that I have to raise money or go into an incubator. Those are factors that should accelerate an application, not determine it.